Eduvanz Bags $10 Mn Debt Funding From InCred, Vivriti & Northern Arc Capital

Mumbai-based education-focussed fintech startup Eduvanz has raised $10 Mn in debt funding from multiple financial institutions including InCred Financial Services, Vivriti Capital, and Northern Arc Capital. It will use the funds to expand its customer base of students and learners who are looking for loans for educational purposes.

Eduvanz claims to have already enabled more than 25,000 learners through its point-of-sale (PoS) loans platform with over INR 300 Cr disbursed. The company uses artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics to assess risk and claims to disburse loans within hours.

Founded in 2016 by Varun Chopra and Raheel Shah, Eduvanz last raised $5 Mn in its Series A round from Sequoia Capital India and Unitus Ventures in August 2020. That round came in the middle of a growth spurt where, its customer base grew 4x and monthly disbursal grew 3x between April and December last year.

The Eduvanz Lending Model

Eduvanz is one of the few fintech lenders that are look at solving the credit crunch in  a particular vertical.  The startup works with students and institutions to enable EMI-based loans under a ‘study now-pay-later’ model. It works across the K-12, test prep, and upskilling segments as well as with higher education students. Besides Eduvanz, India’s education fintech segment has seen very limited development. There are startups such as Bengaluru-based Leap Finance, but that is solely focussed on higher education abroad. Incidentally, Leap Finance is also backed by Sequoia Capital.

Through the Eduvanz platform, loans are facilitated through a point of sales payment solution that institutes integrate within their enrollment system. This enables on-premise instant financing for students and parents. The company uses proprietary AI-based algorithms and predictive analytics to assess risk and provides loans based on the future employability of the learner.

CEO and cofounder Chopra said, “During the pandemic, we have found that learners in India focused on learning and upskilling themselves. We are moving towards becoming a leader in the financing-lending market for education. The debt we have raised further strengthens our position and will help us reach out to many more who are looking to fund their education.”

In November 2020, Eduvanz acquired edtech startup Klarity, an online one-on-one networking and mentoring platform. The acquisition is expected to help Eduvanz expand its reach to a network of industry mentors and more than 300 educational institutes. Klarity is said to have enabled over 5,000 career counselling sessions via one-on-one mentoring. With this, the startup is also looking to venture beyond education finance and into career and academic counselling.